


The Triangle Squared

by Carylfan84



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Daryl has no clue what to do with these four yahoos, F/F, F/M, Multi, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, Polyamory, everybody loves everybody in their own way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 15:05:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8406325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carylfan84/pseuds/Carylfan84
Summary: Love in a time of walkers doesn't have to follow the old rules. Just a slice of life in the polyamorous playhouse Noah, Beth, Tara, and Denise find themselves in.





	

Living with three women should have been the best experience of his life. Tv before the world went to hell had told him so. And music. And movies. And _those_ movies that his mother would have knocked the taste out of his mouth over if she’d known he’d watched them.

 

Those fuckers all lied.

 

Living with three women was living with three women. It was Beth hogging the shower because she liked to sing (but at least she liked to share). It was Tara leaving her bra everywhere. _EVERYWHERE._ It was Denise losing her glasses and the four of them spending the day turning the house upside down trying to find them. Yup. Movies lied.

 

Noah couldn’t entirely complain. No, not true. His grannie was probably in heaven preparing switches for when she saw him. He could complain about an impending eternity of ass whooping for whatever this was. He wasn’t sure what to call this. But he was pretty sure the Bible had prohibitions against it.

 

Denise would smile at him whenever he said things like that. She’d give him that cute little quirk of a grin, pull her glasses down to the rim of her nose, and explain to him that his heteronormative worldview was a result of growing up in a patriarchal, Eurocentric society that enforced Judeo-Christian norms. He was pretty sure she said that just to watch his eyes glaze over.

 

At least they no longer lived with the rest of the Georgia group. 

 

It had been awkward when they’d left Grady. Beth had clung to him after her near death experience. If Dawn hadn’t missed. If Daryl hadn’t shot Dawn after Dawn’s initial misfire. If the Grady cops hadn’t agreed with Beth’s actions. A lot of ifs that could have made things a lot worse than they were. A lot of ifs that put Maggie and Glenn and self appointed Uncle Daryl in a very protective mood. A lot of ifs that put Noah in their crosshairs. Long glances that turned into held hands and stolen kisses certainly didn’t help the matter.

 

When they’d come to Alexandria, where there were calendars that kept the correct date and even clocks with a good approximation of the correct time, Beth realized somewhere between Atlanta and Virginia she’d turned 18. A milestone. A reason to celebrate. An excuse for the youngest farmer’s daughter to upend her sister’s view of the world even more. 

 

When Beth had suggested exploring her budding bisexuality with Tara (Denise said it was actually pansexuality but whatever), Noah hadn’t quite known what to say. Tara had become a big goofy sister to him. Which made Tara being a lesbian something of a comfort. At least Beth couldn’t try to wrangle a threesome. 

Noah liked to think he was a good boyfriend. He’d like to think he was an enlightened man. If you love something let it go and all that jazz. What he hadn’t expected was for Beth to come back and ask if she could have them both. But, hey, love at the end of the world. The old rules, well, most of them, just didn’t apply any more. Being the point of an angle wasn’t so bad. Especially when Tara pointed out that adding a platonic spoke between the two of them made them the Alexandrian triangle of awesome.

 

More accurately it made them the Alexandrian triangle of being stalked by the people who cared about them, and just wanted what was best for them, and were really confused because they didn’t know which one to threaten. Daryl would occasionally saunter over like the overprotective uncle he definitely was. He’d look at Noah. Look at Tara. Look at Beth who definitely started this mess. Then he’d make a noise, that Tara swore up and down sounded like a purse dog that had just had his existential reality fucked with, and quickly scamper off. Why Tara knew what that sounded like Noah didn’t want to know.

 

But it was cool. And capital A Awkward. And puppy piles in their Alexandrian house got an evil eye from all concerned parties. It was something the three of them could live with. 

 

Then Tara found Denise.

 

Found. Sought out with puppy dog eyes and ideas so bad that they could only be good. Whatever. It turned out that there were limits to Rick’s patience and what Maggie could stomach without wanting to mom the hell out of all four of them. But Denise had her own house. And suddenly Denise had three new roommates.

 

Noah was surprised, but not entirely shocked, that a triangle could be squared. That Denise could love Tara. That Tara also loved Beth. That Beth loved him as much as she loved Tara. That Denise and Tara could decide he was their little brother/platonic cabana boy. That Beth could accept Denise that way Tara accepted him.

 

Jesus, it’s not like it was the weirdest thing going on in the world. A bunch of dead bastards walked the earth, after all. And the addition of Denise made Daryl’s noise shoot up to a sound that only dogs and small children could hear. 

 

So maybe he exaggerated a little. Maybe living with three women wasn’t really that bad. As long as he made sure to sleep next to Beth. Tara had subjected him to extra teasing for a week the one time he’d cuddled her and woke with morning glory. And then Glenn had given him a talking to. And, yeah, no. No thank you.

 

He was sure he’d figure it out one day. Until then he was going to enjoy the epic karaoke battle Beth and Denise were having in the livingroom.

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea where this came from. Written while under the influence of the Deadpool soundtrack.


End file.
